Cricket is a sport of evolution and improvement, and those who learn and get better with time are sure to succeed. Abhishek Sharma is one of such players who has improved leaps and bounds as a batter over the years. From being an inexperienced youngster to becoming the key player of his team, he has grown as an aggressive batter who is known for his attacking stroke play and ability to dominate bowlers. His journey in Domestic and the IPL has been a learning one. Every year, he has developed his technique, sorted out his shot selection, and become a more consistent player by scoring regularly. His ability to attack during the powerplay, play spin well, and accelerate the scoring rate makes him valuable. Let us have a closer look at the evolution of Abhishek Sharma as a consistent batter with statistics and facts. Abhishek Sharma's Batting Analysis Early Career and Playing Style Abhishek Sharma impressed everyone with his performances in domestic and age-group cricekt. He was part of the India U-19 side that won the 2018 ICC U-19 World Cup. At the beginning of his playing career, Abhishek was both aggressive and a classical stroke cricket player. Since beginning, Abhishek Sharma was capable of finding loopholes and also hitting big scores, but there was one area where he had to work on and that was being consistent. In his early years in the IPL, he played a few cameos but was unable to convert starts into big scores. His strike rate was great, but his average was low since he was getting out while playing aggressive shots frequently. But as the years went by, he started to tweak his game and worked on adding more game sense. Also Read | IPL 2025: Ishan Kishan Scores Consecutive Fifties in Intra-Squad Match IPL Performance and Improvement Abhishek Sharma represented Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL and became one of the prominent top-order batter over time. Let's review his performance for the IPL all these years and how he's developed: IPL 2018-2021: Abhishek Sharma started his IPL career with Delhi based franchise where he played just one season, three matches to be precise, and ended up scoring 63 runs in 3 matches. In 2019, he was signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad where, for three consecutive seasons, he failed to make an impact despite getting enough chances. During 2019-2021, Abhishek represented SRH in 19 matches where he scored just 178 runs. IPL 2022: It was his coming-of-age year. He was given a regular opening role, and he repaid it richly. He scored 426 runs in 14 matches with a strike rate of 133.12 and average of 30.42. His aggression against bowlers during powerplays made him one of the most exciting young strikers. IPL 2023: He continued his good form and enhanced his technique against pace and spin. He was more consistent in building the innings while playing aggressive strokes. However, he could only score 226 runs in 11 innings in that season. Abhishek Sharma's All Sixes during The Tata IPL 2024🔥🥵🏏#IPL2025 #SRH #PlayWithFire #AbhishekSharma #OrangeArmy pic.twitter.com/seW7lOJIDv — Siddharth Bhatia (@SiddharthB01) March 7, 2025 IPL 2024: The southpaw took the bowlers to town during the IPL 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and demonstrated his capability of scoring rapid runs. This proved to be the peak season of Abhishek, as the latter scored a total of 484 runs in an average strike rate of over 200, while in more than 16 games, the youngster smashed 42 sixes. Improved Ability to Dominate the Powerplay Abhishek Sharma Stats in Powerplay Duration Innings Runs Balls Faced Strike Rate 1s 2s 4s 6s Outs 2021-2023 30 489 374 130.74 98 24 73 8 17 2024-2025 35 766 394 194.42 92 19 75 56 20 Abhishek Sharma's biggest strength is his capability to control the powerplay overs in the T20 game. His aggressive approach in the initial six overs of the game puts pressure on the other team, giving his team a good start. He has a natural ability to hit sixes, and he never shies away from taking risks against pacers. His strength to smash sixes has developed a lot with time. From 2018 to 2022, he hammered 25 sixes in IPL. However, his stat saw a huge spike in the next two seasons (2023-2024) as the batter smashed 48 sixes. His powerplay strike rate has also increased, and he is now among the most successful players in the early overs. Improved Game Against Spin Abhishek Sharma Stats vs Spin (T20s) Duration Innings Runs Balls Faced Strike Rate 1s 2s 4s 6s Outs 2018-2021 15 76 61 124.59 30 3 4 4 4 2022-2025 47 901 464 194.18 181 32 56 72 28 One of the most important aspects where Abhishek Sharma has worked and evolved with time is his ability to play the turn. Earlier, tended to throw away his wicket against good spinners, especially in the middle overs. But with time, he has developed his footwork and selection of shots against spin, thanks to more practice and experience. His strike rate against spinners has only got better with time, and he has even developed shots like sweep and reverse sweep to handle them. This evolution has made him a more well-rounded batter who can use his acceleration at any part of the innings. Also Read | The Business of IPL: How Teams and BCCI Make Big Money Areas of Improvement for Abhishek Sharma While Abhishek Sharma has progressed a lot as an attacking batter, there are still some areas where he can improve in order to score big consistently: Consistency: Though he has won many games with match-winning knocks in last few years, he needs to be consistent and also post a big score ahead of his name. Shot Selection: The left-handed player, at times, loses his wicket when he plays very attacking shots during the beginning of his innings. It is extremely important to have a good balance between being aggressive and defensive since it will result in him scoring more. The Road Ahead Abhishek Sharma's evolution as a batter is the sign of his determination and hard work. With time on his hand, he has the potential to become one of the finest T20 openers. If he continues to grow his game and maintains his attacking intent, he can soon find himself among the big names in the cricketing history. His recent heroics while playing for India against England has displayed a spark which he would love to carry in the future games as well. His aggressive style, ability to deal with bowlers, and consistent improvement make him a player to watch for the future. With every season of IPL, he is showing that he is a match-winner and his best is yet to come.